Casimir-Polder shift of ground-state hyperfine Zeeman sub-levels of hydrogen isotopes in a micron-sized metallic cavity at finite temperature

TL;DR

This paper calculates the Casimir-Polder shifts of hyperfine transition frequencies in hydrogen isotopes within a micron-sized metallic cavity at various temperatures, predicting measurable shifts of a few tens of Hz.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed computation of hyperfine transition shifts due to Casimir-Polder effects in a finite-temperature metallic cavity for hydrogen isotopes.

Findings

Predicted hyperfine frequency shifts of a few tens of Hz.

Shifts are measurable with current magnetic resonance technology.

Results extend to deuterium and tritium isotopes.

Abstract

The frequencies of transitions between hyperfine levels of ground-state atoms can be measured with exquisite precision using magnetic-resonance techniques. This makes hyperfine transitions ideal probes of QED effects originating from the interaction of atoms with the quantized electromagnetic field. One of the most remarkable effects predicted by QED is the Casimir-Polder shift experienced by the energy levels of atoms placed near one or more dielectric objects. Here we compute the Casimir-Polder shift and the width of hyperfine transitions between ground-state Zeeman sub-levels of an hydrogen atom placed in a micron-sized metallic cavity, over a range of temperatures extending from cryogenic temperatures to room temperature. Results are presented also for deuterium and tritium. We predict shifts of the hyperfine transitions frequencies of a few tens of Hz that might be measurable with present-day magnetic resonance apparatus.